Observations from Louisville Football's 2021 Schedule

(Photo of Cardinal Stadium: University of Louisville Athletics)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Thursday, the Atlantic Coast Conference finally released the full updated week-by-week 2021 football schedule on the ACC Network's "Packer & Durham". Now, the 221-day countdown for the start of year three under head coach Scott Satterfield has begun for the Louisville football program.

You can view Louisville's new schedule here, but in this piece we're going to take a bit of a deeper dive into the Cards' draw for the upcoming 2021 season.

Comfy at Home

The folks over at the ACC headquarters in Greensboro, N.C. did the Cardinals a great service when it came to scheduling games at Cardinal Stadium. Louisville will play seven games at home in 2021, and just four true road games - tied with Miami for the lowest total in the conference. In fact, it's the most home games for Louisville since the 2013 season.

A majority of Louisville's home games will occur in the back half of the season, when the Cardinals will play four of their final six regular season games at Cardinal Stadium. Pitt and Virginia are the only other ACC programs in which four of their final six regular season games are at home.

Weekday Draw

When this fall comes around, and you turn on the TV for college football Saturday, don't be surprised if Louisville won't be playing that day.

The Cardinals are playing three weekday games in 2021, tied with North Carolina for the most in the ACC. Louisville will open up the season against Ole Miss in the annual Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Monday, Sept. 6 (Labor Day). Two weeks later, the Cardinals will host 2017 National Champions UCF on Friday, Sept. 17.

In their penultimate game of the regular season, Louisville will make their first trip to Duke since 2002, and square off with the Blue Devils on Thursday, Nov. 18. In total, Louisville will play on four different days of the week, excluding Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Rivalry Restored

The Battle for the Governor's Cup is back. After not playing for the first time in 27 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Louisville and Kentucky will once again clash on the gridiron, meeting on Saturday, Nov. 27 at Cardinal Stadium to end the regular season.

What is important to note here, is that Louisville will have an extra two days to prepare for the rivalry matchup than Kentucky. This is due to Louisville game against Duke the week before taking place on a Thursday.

Other Scheduling Quirks

There are a couple other nuggets of information to take note of. Louisville's bye week will come during Week 7, meaning they will have an equal amount of games on both sides of the bye. From an overall health standpoint, this is ideal for the program.

Also, thanks to the scheduling adjustments made in 2020 because of the virus, the Cardinals will host Syracuse for the third year in a row. Their last game at the Carrier Dome took place during the 2018 campaign, a 54-23 loss which wound up being then-head coach Bobby Petrino's final game.

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